June 13, 2025 • 22 mins
Targets of Fraud – World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is June 15 and according to the World Health Organization, one in six people 60 years and older experience financial fraud or abuse each year. Elder fraud reports to the FBI’s Crime Complaint Center have risen by 14%, with an average loss of $34K (see link below). Chris Boyd, Jeff Perry, and Russ Ball dig into
the statistics and discuss the most common types of fraud. The trio also shares practical advice how to avoid scams and fraud and what to do if you become a victim.
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/elder-fraud-in-focus
For more information or to reach TEAM AMR, click the following link:
https://www.wealthenhancement.com/s/advisor-teams/amr
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Something More with Chris Boyd.
Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner practitioner
and senior vice president financial advisor at Wealth
Enhancement Group, one of the nation's largest registered
investment advisors.
We call it Something More because we'd like
to talk not only about those important dollar
and cents issues, but also the quality of
life issues that make the money matters matter.
(00:22):
Here he is, your fulfillment facilitator, your partner
in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and
across the country.
Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd.
Welcome to Something More with Chris Boyd.
I'm Chris Boyd here with Jeff Perry and
Russ Ball, both of the AMR team.
And we are all of Wealth Enhancement Group
(00:44):
and glad to have you with us for
another episode of the show.
Jeff had recently taken a CE course, prompted
us for this episode.
I think this is the kind of thing
that all of us have run into these
kinds of issues when it comes to fraud
and scams and the risks of being caught
(01:08):
up in these kinds of efforts to trick
people into giving up their money.
Well, June 15th is World Financial Fraud Abuse
Day, Awareness Day.
So, you know, every day should be that,
right?
But with that in mind and some recent
data that came out from the FBI and
(01:29):
yes, I took that continuing education course.
So it's been hitting me over the back
of the head, I guess, for the last
week or so, financial fraud.
And I think it's a big topic, right?
The FBI, the FTC, Social Security, IRS, they
all have dedicated efforts to prevent and mitigate
and deal with investigations regarding fraud.
(01:51):
But I think for our purposes, and I
think the intent of the World Day is
to focus on seniors who are growing more
and more vulnerable to these types of frauds.
And I just want to start out with,
you know, setting the stage.
We know this, we talk about it from
time to time, but America's getting grayer or
(02:11):
whiter, or whatever the case may be.
18% or almost 60 million people in
the United States.
You mean whiter by terms of their hair,
you're saying, right?
I guess I should be.
Yes, whiter.
Our hair is getting whiter or losing or
leaving us.
Older, whatever it might be.
(02:33):
Yeah, we're getting older.
Yes.
Almost 1 in 5, 18%, a little short
of 1 in 5, Americans are over 60.
That's a big number.
60 million people in the United States.
Obviously, it's growing and growing because we're living
longer and the baby boomer generation.
(02:54):
1.9 million Americans are over 90.
And there's 90,000 Americans over 100.
Wow.
I think that just sets the stage of
the targets.
You know, the title of our podcast today
is Targets of Fraud.
Americans are getting older and the types of
(03:16):
fraud, this is according to the FBI.
I'll throw a link to this report in
the notes, so if people want to go
into it, but the types of fraud that
are impacting Americans, and this is only the
fraud that is reported.
Of course, we know that less than 10
% of all fraud committed against elderly is
(03:36):
reported, and maybe we can go into why
that is in a little bit.
But of the number one type of fraud
reported to the FBI last year was tech
support scams, 18,000.
And then it was fraud related to personal
data breaches, you know, when they're just trying
(03:56):
to get your information and use it for
some other purpose later.
Number three was confidence and romance scams.
There's a lot there to talk about.
Number four was non-payment, alleged, this isn't
really non-payment, right?
It's a fraud.
And non-delivery scams.
(04:17):
I've heard about this one a lot lately.
I'll give you an example, if you like.
And the top fifth, the fifth top reported
elder fraud scams last year, according to the
FBI, is investment scams.
So it's all over.
It's not just one thing that people need
to be looking for.
It's a variety of scams.
(04:38):
And that data, according to the FBI, is
up 14% last year over the previous
year, with no signs of declining.
It totaled $3.4 billion in aggregate.
And the average scam was $34,000.
(04:59):
That's a lot of money to be out.
$34,000.
So wait, you're telling me that Bill Gates
isn't calling me about repairing my computer?
I don't think so.
You're a pretty important guy, Chris, but I
don't know if he'd personally call you.
I think he might have somebody.
Have you ever had one of those Microsoft
(05:20):
calls?
I have not.
Oh, I've gotten those.
Yeah.
This is Microsoft calling.
We noticed there's a problem on your computer.
We just need to get it rectified.
Can you, you know, and then they pursue
trying to, like they're trying to be so
helpful.
Right.
Well, that's nice of them, right?
Well, that wasn't that kind of them.
(05:41):
And I'm like, who are you?
What?
You know.
I referenced that I had a little experience
with the package delivery scam.
Yeah.
My son called me and said, I think
I got scammed.
I said, what'd you do?
Yeah.
And he said that he was waiting for
a package, but it was early.
(06:02):
So it didn't make sense.
But the post office sent him a text
message saying he owed $2, you know, postage
due.
Yeah.
So he didn't think $2.
He didn't think about it.
Right.
So he clicked the link in his text,
his credit card, a debit card, whatever he
used.
And it was $2.
It was $2.
(06:23):
And instantly the card was hacked.
And, you know, the other information, he had
to put all this information in to verify
it was him.
You know, he fell for it.
Hook, line and sinker.
He, you know, he knew he made a
mistake.
That's why he called.
Yeah.
Right.
And so, you know, it doesn't have to
be somebody calling asking for $34,000 or
(06:45):
something really suspicious sounding.
It can be something.
I mean, that's why you get these calls
and these texts from national banks, Bank of
America, Chase.
Right.
And you say, I don't have a Chase
account.
And so, you know it, but.
You know, the odds are they're going to
hit enough people.
That's right.
Right.
And when they make that personal connection, like,
it must be true.
(07:05):
I have a Chase account.
Right.
Right.
And so forth.
So.
Well, you know, as you kind of alluded
to this earlier, that the number of victims
that are actually affected, it's far fewer that
go reported.
It's a little bit embarrassing for people.
You know, they feel like, oh, how stupid
(07:27):
I should have known.
But this is only going to get harder
to detect with artificial intelligence.
You can fake your voices.
Right.
You could have false identities.
Like, this is going to become more and
more prevalent.
But what was it?
Something like 5 million scams.
(07:48):
Exactly.
5 million a year.
And to your point, the research has indicated
that only 4% of these cases are
reported.
Yeah.
And you can see, I mean, on some
level, you go, what are you going to
do about it realistically?
Right.
So do you want to go through the
trouble of filing a police report or whatever?
They're not really going to catch the people
(08:11):
most of the time, you know.
Most of the time.
But there are special areas of law enforcement
that do gather this data and then ultimately
can sometimes be able to shut these things
down.
Right.
And if you have a specific scam, like
it's a social security scam, a post office
(08:33):
scam, etc., a tax scam, you contact the
IRS, has their own division, social security and
so forth, the post office.
But if it's a general scam, those reports,
you can file an online report at the
Federal Trade Commission, FTC, and they gather up
all the data.
(08:53):
And obviously, they're not going to pick, you
know, if you've lost $500, the likelihood of
them picking your case and traveling to Africa
or wherever, you know, to get your money
back.
But they look for patterns.
They look for commonalities.
They look for, you know, modus operandi, you
(09:14):
know, ways that they can mitigate and investigate
these cases larger and hopefully either with technology
or, you know, cyber activity.
So you should report it.
You're not going to make the front page
of the newspaper that, you know, you're a
victim here.
Yeah.
And be embarrassed or something.
Yeah.
Right.
(09:35):
Let's talk about what are some common scams
because I think being aware of some of
these can help you to be less susceptible
to them.
And of course, you know, they alter and
they adapt.
Yeah, they morph.
They sure do.
It's not, you know, necessarily identical to what
we might reference here, but, you know, you
(09:56):
can maybe have a heightened awareness for some
of these things.
Yeah, for sure.
Also, you know, the topic of why it
is that seniors are, I think, more frequently
targeted.
Let's talk about that for just a quick
second and then go into some of these
scams.
(10:17):
One of them is I think it tends
to be not always, but tends to be
seniors are a little less technologically comfortable, right?
Things change a lot and they're not necessarily
up to the date on all the latest
and greatest, you know, things.
And so they either take advantage of that,
(10:37):
like a self-awareness.
Oh, I don't know that I have this
mastered or they're able to, you know, use
technology in a way that it undermines, you
know, it can put you at a disadvantage,
you know what I mean?
That's right.
I think also when you think about seniors,
(10:59):
some seniors, not all, of course, but may
have a diminished capacity at times and that
they're the most susceptible to these challenges, you
know, and they still might, you know, control
(11:20):
their finances and things, but they could get
more confused or people, they could be in
a position where they might trust that someone's
to help them when in fact they're, you
know, who's positioned themselves to help.
Oh, my call from Microsoft is a nice
of you to call, you know, I've been
(11:40):
having trouble with my computer, you know, that
kind of thing.
So in any case, what are some of
the scams?
Did you want to say something, Russ?
You look like you're poised to jump in.
No, I think it's just, yeah, especially when
people are calling in and, you know, when
you're actually talking to someone on the phone,
it's very easy to think like, yeah, this
(12:01):
person's calling from a reputable company and I
do have that issue, like you mentioned before,
and very easy to kind of go down
that route and, you know, click on something
you shouldn't.
And, you know, it's a numbers game, right?
So most seniors will not fall for this.
We're talking as a percentage, right?
And it's a numbers game.
(12:23):
So if you have a senior who is
maybe a little cognitively declined, maybe they're isolated,
so they don't have someone just to check
with.
Or maybe they're just more trusting.
Those are all reasons.
And, you know, I'm not, the number one
list, according to my continuing education class, which
(12:44):
is from FINRA, is IRS impersonation scams.
And I think that goes with, because people
generally of all ages are afraid of the
IRS.
Absolutely.
Who wants to mess with the IRS?
Yeah, I don't want to have audits for
the rest of my life, right?
Yeah.
So let's start with one premise as, you
know, a positive prevention suggestion is the IRS
(13:07):
does not call you, period.
It's absolute hard and fast.
That's right.
The IRS does not make outbound calls.
That's correct.
They send you correspondence by mail if you
have an issue they need to address.
And a common one that was on the
Cape for a while, I haven't heard about
(13:29):
it, but it was the individual would get
a call and say there was about to
be a warrant for your arrest.
Yeah, I remember this being prominent.
Yeah.
Because you have failed to pay whatever the
IRS scam is.
Or it could be, it also was associated
with jury duty.
You missed jury duty.
(13:49):
You didn't show up for the hearing.
And now there's a warrant.
And the only way to avoid that is
to post a bond.
And you can do that by going to
your Walgreens or CVS and buying a green
card and calling me back.
My name is Deputy Dog.
And I will take those numbers and you
will be off the hook.
I will personally take care of it.
(14:09):
I think this is an injustice.
Yeah.
Not fair, but I'm going to help you.
Just call me back at this number.
Yeah.
And then of course, they answer it with
IRS warrant service, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
So IRS impersonation is number one.
And number two is maybe the oldest one,
or at least one of the older ones,
(14:30):
lottery and sweepscapes.
Yeah.
Scams.
Yeah.
The Nigerian Prince or one of those where
they just, if you just help them, give
them a little bit to get the legal
fees or something.
Yeah.
Processing fees.
I'll share the abundance of wealth that's coming
my way.
(14:51):
It's difficult to understand how people could buy
that one.
But, you know, once again, a numbers game,
you only need one a day to get
rich.
Yeah.
They're on the phone all day.
Imagine if they put this effort to doing
good, right?
Well, I could say that about a lot
(15:13):
of things.
Yes.
Robocalls.
What are robocalls?
What's that about?
Robocalls is an automated phone call that you
get.
Yeah.
And it's pretending to be from someone, you
know, like a Chase Bank.
I hate to keep using Chase.
Bank of America.
One of the big names.
From Big Bank.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like that.
Yeah.
And they're designed to get you to call
back.
(15:34):
And so call back the number that they
leave you.
So this machine is making calls with a
fake number.
Um, I learned this in politics.
I did not know this from law enforcement.
But you can using a voice over internet
protocol, uh, machine computer software.
(15:54):
You can program it to have it come
from any number that you set.
Interesting.
Yeah.
So they set it from an area code
that might look like Washington, D.C. or
New York or.
Yeah.
Something close to maybe what your, the real
Chase Bank account number is.
And so, and they leave a number that
(16:16):
you call.
So it doesn't feel like you're being, you
know, pressured.
And then you're into their system, verifying your
identity, giving them your social security number.
And before you know it, they have everything
they need.
Yeah.
Uh, hard to believe, uh, that, uh, you
know, when, when you get that kind of
(16:37):
thing, don't call the number given.
If you get a message from your bank,
right.
Use the number on the back of your
ATM card or whatever it is, you know,
look it up yourself.
Um, and then I received this call.
Is this legit?
You know, that kind of thing.
You can find a way to do that.
That's, that's good advice.
A lot of these scams, you know, whether
it be someone at your front door, knocking
(16:59):
someone calling, whatever it is, if you just
stop, if you just pause and say, you
know, ask a friend, call a relative, uh,
you can call the local law enforcement if
you'd like, um, look up the number independently,
as you say, and, or just wait, um,
just don't react immediately.
You know, of course their, their pitch or
(17:20):
their messages, something's wrong.
You have to get us right now or
the world's going to end.
And so just pause.
These, um, these grandparents scams are going to
become even harder to, uh, discern.
Yeah.
The voice, uh, uh, AI or whatever it
(17:40):
is.
And if you think about, uh, social media
generally, our grandchildren, our children, we, Hey, we're
providing content right now.
Um, there's so many examples that AI can
pick up from public information.
We had this scam at the sheriff's office
several times where it would be like, they
(18:02):
would look up someone's social media and many
of these are local by the way.
So it's something definitely to report to the
local law enforcement.
So they'll see that you have a grand
grandchild or a child, whatever, they may be
able to tell what they're involved in.
So they have some data, they know their
name.
So they call and say, Russ, your, your
grandchild, um, has been arrested.
(18:24):
It's nothing serious.
Don't worry.
They asked us to call you because they
didn't want to worry anybody else.
And they know that you would help quietly
privately.
So this didn't, you know, get out in
the media or anything.
Um, it's not serious.
Don't worry about it.
But little Johnny just needs $500 to get
out.
And as soon as he's out, I'll call
you and you can come pick them up.
(18:47):
And, you know, they'll even in our case,
when I was working with the sheriff's office,
they even gave her address.
Right.
Cause obviously they're not, yeah, they're not, um,
they don't have their own jail and that's
not a real, real scheme here.
So they would give the address.
People would look it up.
We even had people come in and say,
I didn't give him any money, but I
(19:09):
want to know what's going on.
Yeah.
Right.
And then we had people come in and
say, I paid the bail.
You know, here's my number.
And it's like, that's a scam.
And it's so powerful.
I mean, they, they, they have the name,
they have some details about you and you're
just trying to help and it's not like
$10 million.
It was usually 500.
(19:30):
So you're just reacting real quick.
Um, it occurs to me as we're in
the midst of this, uh, there was a
recent episode of, um, another podcast, the Washington
wise podcast, we've had Michael Townsend as a
guest before.
And, uh, he, they also happened to address
(19:53):
fraud, financial fraud, one of their recent episodes,
episode one 20.
You may want to check that out.
It gave some specifics about the kind of
things that a Schwab is doing to protect
their clientele.
I'm sure that can give people on who
use brokerage accounts.
I'm sure the similar kinds of practices at
(20:14):
the major brokerage platforms, some things to check
out.
We give it a wrap it up.
Um, a short episode today.
Anything else you wanted to, uh, you know,
the kind of conclude with or resources or,
um, you know, things people should keep in
mind.
Um, one comment and I'll just refer people
(20:35):
to the show notes.
I'll put a couple of resources in there.
Um, this isn't just from people from foreign
countries or criminals.
Sometimes it's related to caregivers.
Sometimes it's related to people who are in
the home, you know, lawfully.
And so it's, it's broader than that.
So be aware, you know, ask, do your
(20:58):
reading, do your research.
If things don't seem right, they probably aren't
and turn to somebody and you can always
turn to local law enforcement.
Don't think that you're the first person to
ever call with this.
It's very common.
And that call can save a lot of
grief and a lot of expense, a lot
of expense.
So it's a way it's awareness day on
(21:18):
the 15th.
So be aware, maybe talk to your parents
or grandparents who are getting older, maybe be
more engaged in certain things and, you know,
just be aware.
Good, good comments.
Good, good suggestions.
And thanks for bringing this to our attention.
If anyone needs help, whether it's with some
of these issues or any aspect of your
(21:39):
portfolio management or financial planning, don't hesitate to
reach out to us until next time, everybody
keeps driving for something more.
Thank you for listening to something more with
Chris Boyd.
Call us for help, whether it's for financial
planning or portfolio management, insurance concerns, or those
quality of life issues that make the money
matters matter.
(22:00):
Whatever's on your mind.
Visit us at somethingmorewithchrisboyd.com or call us
toll free at 866-771-8901.
Or send us your questions to amr-info
at wealthenhancement.com.
You're listening to something more with Chris Boyd
Financial Talk Show.
Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services and Jay Christopher Boyd
(22:22):
provide investment advice on an individual basis to
clients only.
Proper advice depends on a complete analysis of
all facts and circumstances.
The information given on this program is general
financial comments and cannot be relied upon as
pertaining to your specific situation.
Wealth Enhancement Group cannot guarantee that using the
information from this show will generate profits or
ensure freedom from loss.
Listeners should consult their own financial advisors or
conduct their own due diligence before making any
(22:44):
financial decisions.
Welcome to Something More with Chris Boyd.
Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner practitioner
and senior vice president financial advisor at Wealth
Enhancement Group, one of the nation's largest registered
investment advisors.
We call it Something More because we'd like
to talk not only about those important dollar
and cents issues, but also the quality of
life issues that make the money matters matter.
(00:22):
Here he is, your fulfillment facilitator, your partner
in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and
across the country.
Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd.
Welcome to Something More with Chris Boyd.
I'm Chris Boyd here with Jeff Perry and
Russ Ball, both of the AMR team.
And we are all of Wealth Enhancement Group
(00:44):
and glad to have you with us for
another episode of the show.
Jeff had recently taken a CE course, prompted
us for this episode.
I think this is the kind of thing
that all of us have run into these
kinds of issues when it comes to fraud
and scams and the risks of being caught
(01:08):
up in these kinds of efforts to trick
people into giving up their money.
Well, June 15th is World Financial Fraud Abuse
Day, Awareness Day.
So, you know, every day should be that,
right?
But with that in mind and some recent
data that came out from the FBI and
(01:29):
yes, I took that continuing education course.
So it's been hitting me over the back
of the head, I guess, for the last
week or so, financial fraud.
And I think it's a big topic, right?
The FBI, the FTC, Social Security, IRS, they
all have dedicated efforts to prevent and mitigate
and deal with investigations regarding fraud.
(01:51):
But I think for our purposes, and I
think the intent of the World Day is
to focus on seniors who are growing more
and more vulnerable to these types of frauds.
And I just want to start out with,
you know, setting the stage.
We know this, we talk about it from
time to time, but America's getting grayer or
(02:11):
whiter, or whatever the case may be.
18% or almost 60 million people in
the United States.
You mean whiter by terms of their hair,
you're saying, right?
I guess I should be.
Yes, whiter.
Our hair is getting whiter or losing or
leaving us.
Older, whatever it might be.
(02:33):
Yeah, we're getting older.
Yes.
Almost 1 in 5, 18%, a little short
of 1 in 5, Americans are over 60.
That's a big number.
60 million people in the United States.
Obviously, it's growing and growing because we're living
longer and the baby boomer generation.
(02:54):
1.9 million Americans are over 90.
And there's 90,000 Americans over 100.
Wow.
I think that just sets the stage of
the targets.
You know, the title of our podcast today
is Targets of Fraud.
Americans are getting older and the types of
(03:16):
fraud, this is according to the FBI.
I'll throw a link to this report in
the notes, so if people want to go
into it, but the types of fraud that
are impacting Americans, and this is only the
fraud that is reported.
Of course, we know that less than 10
% of all fraud committed against elderly is
(03:36):
reported, and maybe we can go into why
that is in a little bit.
But of the number one type of fraud
reported to the FBI last year was tech
support scams, 18,000.
And then it was fraud related to personal
data breaches, you know, when they're just trying
(03:56):
to get your information and use it for
some other purpose later.
Number three was confidence and romance scams.
There's a lot there to talk about.
Number four was non-payment, alleged, this isn't
really non-payment, right?
It's a fraud.
And non-delivery scams.
(04:17):
I've heard about this one a lot lately.
I'll give you an example, if you like.
And the top fifth, the fifth top reported
elder fraud scams last year, according to the
FBI, is investment scams.
So it's all over.
It's not just one thing that people need
to be looking for.
It's a variety of scams.
(04:38):
And that data, according to the FBI, is
up 14% last year over the previous
year, with no signs of declining.
It totaled $3.4 billion in aggregate.
And the average scam was $34,000.
(04:59):
That's a lot of money to be out.
$34,000.
So wait, you're telling me that Bill Gates
isn't calling me about repairing my computer?
I don't think so.
You're a pretty important guy, Chris, but I
don't know if he'd personally call you.
I think he might have somebody.
Have you ever had one of those Microsoft
(05:20):
calls?
I have not.
Oh, I've gotten those.
Yeah.
This is Microsoft calling.
We noticed there's a problem on your computer.
We just need to get it rectified.
Can you, you know, and then they pursue
trying to, like they're trying to be so
helpful.
Right.
Well, that's nice of them, right?
Well, that wasn't that kind of them.
(05:41):
And I'm like, who are you?
What?
You know.
I referenced that I had a little experience
with the package delivery scam.
Yeah.
My son called me and said, I think
I got scammed.
I said, what'd you do?
Yeah.
And he said that he was waiting for
a package, but it was early.
(06:02):
So it didn't make sense.
But the post office sent him a text
message saying he owed $2, you know, postage
due.
Yeah.
So he didn't think $2.
He didn't think about it.
Right.
So he clicked the link in his text,
his credit card, a debit card, whatever he
used.
And it was $2.
It was $2.
(06:23):
And instantly the card was hacked.
And, you know, the other information, he had
to put all this information in to verify
it was him.
You know, he fell for it.
Hook, line and sinker.
He, you know, he knew he made a
mistake.
That's why he called.
Yeah.
Right.
And so, you know, it doesn't have to
be somebody calling asking for $34,000 or
(06:45):
something really suspicious sounding.
It can be something.
I mean, that's why you get these calls
and these texts from national banks, Bank of
America, Chase.
Right.
And you say, I don't have a Chase
account.
And so, you know it, but.
You know, the odds are they're going to
hit enough people.
That's right.
Right.
And when they make that personal connection, like,
it must be true.
(07:05):
I have a Chase account.
Right.
Right.
And so forth.
So.
Well, you know, as you kind of alluded
to this earlier, that the number of victims
that are actually affected, it's far fewer that
go reported.
It's a little bit embarrassing for people.
You know, they feel like, oh, how stupid
(07:27):
I should have known.
But this is only going to get harder
to detect with artificial intelligence.
You can fake your voices.
Right.
You could have false identities.
Like, this is going to become more and
more prevalent.
But what was it?
Something like 5 million scams.
(07:48):
Exactly.
5 million a year.
And to your point, the research has indicated
that only 4% of these cases are
reported.
Yeah.
And you can see, I mean, on some
level, you go, what are you going to
do about it realistically?
Right.
So do you want to go through the
trouble of filing a police report or whatever?
They're not really going to catch the people
(08:11):
most of the time, you know.
Most of the time.
But there are special areas of law enforcement
that do gather this data and then ultimately
can sometimes be able to shut these things
down.
Right.
And if you have a specific scam, like
it's a social security scam, a post office
(08:33):
scam, etc., a tax scam, you contact the
IRS, has their own division, social security and
so forth, the post office.
But if it's a general scam, those reports,
you can file an online report at the
Federal Trade Commission, FTC, and they gather up
all the data.
(08:53):
And obviously, they're not going to pick, you
know, if you've lost $500, the likelihood of
them picking your case and traveling to Africa
or wherever, you know, to get your money
back.
But they look for patterns.
They look for commonalities.
They look for, you know, modus operandi, you
(09:14):
know, ways that they can mitigate and investigate
these cases larger and hopefully either with technology
or, you know, cyber activity.
So you should report it.
You're not going to make the front page
of the newspaper that, you know, you're a
victim here.
Yeah.
And be embarrassed or something.
Yeah.
Right.
(09:35):
Let's talk about what are some common scams
because I think being aware of some of
these can help you to be less susceptible
to them.
And of course, you know, they alter and
they adapt.
Yeah, they morph.
They sure do.
It's not, you know, necessarily identical to what
we might reference here, but, you know, you
(09:56):
can maybe have a heightened awareness for some
of these things.
Yeah, for sure.
Also, you know, the topic of why it
is that seniors are, I think, more frequently
targeted.
Let's talk about that for just a quick
second and then go into some of these
scams.
(10:17):
One of them is I think it tends
to be not always, but tends to be
seniors are a little less technologically comfortable, right?
Things change a lot and they're not necessarily
up to the date on all the latest
and greatest, you know, things.
And so they either take advantage of that,
(10:37):
like a self-awareness.
Oh, I don't know that I have this
mastered or they're able to, you know, use
technology in a way that it undermines, you
know, it can put you at a disadvantage,
you know what I mean?
That's right.
I think also when you think about seniors,
(10:59):
some seniors, not all, of course, but may
have a diminished capacity at times and that
they're the most susceptible to these challenges, you
know, and they still might, you know, control
(11:20):
their finances and things, but they could get
more confused or people, they could be in
a position where they might trust that someone's
to help them when in fact they're, you
know, who's positioned themselves to help.
Oh, my call from Microsoft is a nice
of you to call, you know, I've been
(11:40):
having trouble with my computer, you know, that
kind of thing.
So in any case, what are some of
the scams?
Did you want to say something, Russ?
You look like you're poised to jump in.
No, I think it's just, yeah, especially when
people are calling in and, you know, when
you're actually talking to someone on the phone,
it's very easy to think like, yeah, this
(12:01):
person's calling from a reputable company and I
do have that issue, like you mentioned before,
and very easy to kind of go down
that route and, you know, click on something
you shouldn't.
And, you know, it's a numbers game, right?
So most seniors will not fall for this.
We're talking as a percentage, right?
And it's a numbers game.
(12:23):
So if you have a senior who is
maybe a little cognitively declined, maybe they're isolated,
so they don't have someone just to check
with.
Or maybe they're just more trusting.
Those are all reasons.
And, you know, I'm not, the number one
list, according to my continuing education class, which
(12:44):
is from FINRA, is IRS impersonation scams.
And I think that goes with, because people
generally of all ages are afraid of the
IRS.
Absolutely.
Who wants to mess with the IRS?
Yeah, I don't want to have audits for
the rest of my life, right?
Yeah.
So let's start with one premise as, you
know, a positive prevention suggestion is the IRS
(13:07):
does not call you, period.
It's absolute hard and fast.
That's right.
The IRS does not make outbound calls.
That's correct.
They send you correspondence by mail if you
have an issue they need to address.
And a common one that was on the
Cape for a while, I haven't heard about
(13:29):
it, but it was the individual would get
a call and say there was about to
be a warrant for your arrest.
Yeah, I remember this being prominent.
Yeah.
Because you have failed to pay whatever the
IRS scam is.
Or it could be, it also was associated
with jury duty.
You missed jury duty.
(13:49):
You didn't show up for the hearing.
And now there's a warrant.
And the only way to avoid that is
to post a bond.
And you can do that by going to
your Walgreens or CVS and buying a green
card and calling me back.
My name is Deputy Dog.
And I will take those numbers and you
will be off the hook.
I will personally take care of it.
(14:09):
I think this is an injustice.
Yeah.
Not fair, but I'm going to help you.
Just call me back at this number.
Yeah.
And then of course, they answer it with
IRS warrant service, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
So IRS impersonation is number one.
And number two is maybe the oldest one,
or at least one of the older ones,
(14:30):
lottery and sweepscapes.
Yeah.
Scams.
Yeah.
The Nigerian Prince or one of those where
they just, if you just help them, give
them a little bit to get the legal
fees or something.
Yeah.
Processing fees.
I'll share the abundance of wealth that's coming
my way.
(14:51):
It's difficult to understand how people could buy
that one.
But, you know, once again, a numbers game,
you only need one a day to get
rich.
Yeah.
They're on the phone all day.
Imagine if they put this effort to doing
good, right?
Well, I could say that about a lot
(15:13):
of things.
Yes.
Robocalls.
What are robocalls?
What's that about?
Robocalls is an automated phone call that you
get.
Yeah.
And it's pretending to be from someone, you
know, like a Chase Bank.
I hate to keep using Chase.
Bank of America.
One of the big names.
From Big Bank.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like that.
Yeah.
And they're designed to get you to call
back.
(15:34):
And so call back the number that they
leave you.
So this machine is making calls with a
fake number.
Um, I learned this in politics.
I did not know this from law enforcement.
But you can using a voice over internet
protocol, uh, machine computer software.
(15:54):
You can program it to have it come
from any number that you set.
Interesting.
Yeah.
So they set it from an area code
that might look like Washington, D.C. or
New York or.
Yeah.
Something close to maybe what your, the real
Chase Bank account number is.
And so, and they leave a number that
(16:16):
you call.
So it doesn't feel like you're being, you
know, pressured.
And then you're into their system, verifying your
identity, giving them your social security number.
And before you know it, they have everything
they need.
Yeah.
Uh, hard to believe, uh, that, uh, you
know, when, when you get that kind of
(16:37):
thing, don't call the number given.
If you get a message from your bank,
right.
Use the number on the back of your
ATM card or whatever it is, you know,
look it up yourself.
Um, and then I received this call.
Is this legit?
You know, that kind of thing.
You can find a way to do that.
That's, that's good advice.
A lot of these scams, you know, whether
it be someone at your front door, knocking
(16:59):
someone calling, whatever it is, if you just
stop, if you just pause and say, you
know, ask a friend, call a relative, uh,
you can call the local law enforcement if
you'd like, um, look up the number independently,
as you say, and, or just wait, um,
just don't react immediately.
You know, of course their, their pitch or
(17:20):
their messages, something's wrong.
You have to get us right now or
the world's going to end.
And so just pause.
These, um, these grandparents scams are going to
become even harder to, uh, discern.
Yeah.
The voice, uh, uh, AI or whatever it
(17:40):
is.
And if you think about, uh, social media
generally, our grandchildren, our children, we, Hey, we're
providing content right now.
Um, there's so many examples that AI can
pick up from public information.
We had this scam at the sheriff's office
several times where it would be like, they
(18:02):
would look up someone's social media and many
of these are local by the way.
So it's something definitely to report to the
local law enforcement.
So they'll see that you have a grand
grandchild or a child, whatever, they may be
able to tell what they're involved in.
So they have some data, they know their
name.
So they call and say, Russ, your, your
grandchild, um, has been arrested.
(18:24):
It's nothing serious.
Don't worry.
They asked us to call you because they
didn't want to worry anybody else.
And they know that you would help quietly
privately.
So this didn't, you know, get out in
the media or anything.
Um, it's not serious.
Don't worry about it.
But little Johnny just needs $500 to get
out.
And as soon as he's out, I'll call
you and you can come pick them up.
(18:47):
And, you know, they'll even in our case,
when I was working with the sheriff's office,
they even gave her address.
Right.
Cause obviously they're not, yeah, they're not, um,
they don't have their own jail and that's
not a real, real scheme here.
So they would give the address.
People would look it up.
We even had people come in and say,
I didn't give him any money, but I
(19:09):
want to know what's going on.
Yeah.
Right.
And then we had people come in and
say, I paid the bail.
You know, here's my number.
And it's like, that's a scam.
And it's so powerful.
I mean, they, they, they have the name,
they have some details about you and you're
just trying to help and it's not like
$10 million.
It was usually 500.
(19:30):
So you're just reacting real quick.
Um, it occurs to me as we're in
the midst of this, uh, there was a
recent episode of, um, another podcast, the Washington
wise podcast, we've had Michael Townsend as a
guest before.
And, uh, he, they also happened to address
(19:53):
fraud, financial fraud, one of their recent episodes,
episode one 20.
You may want to check that out.
It gave some specifics about the kind of
things that a Schwab is doing to protect
their clientele.
I'm sure that can give people on who
use brokerage accounts.
I'm sure the similar kinds of practices at
(20:14):
the major brokerage platforms, some things to check
out.
We give it a wrap it up.
Um, a short episode today.
Anything else you wanted to, uh, you know,
the kind of conclude with or resources or,
um, you know, things people should keep in
mind.
Um, one comment and I'll just refer people
(20:35):
to the show notes.
I'll put a couple of resources in there.
Um, this isn't just from people from foreign
countries or criminals.
Sometimes it's related to caregivers.
Sometimes it's related to people who are in
the home, you know, lawfully.
And so it's, it's broader than that.
So be aware, you know, ask, do your
(20:58):
reading, do your research.
If things don't seem right, they probably aren't
and turn to somebody and you can always
turn to local law enforcement.
Don't think that you're the first person to
ever call with this.
It's very common.
And that call can save a lot of
grief and a lot of expense, a lot
of expense.
So it's a way it's awareness day on
(21:18):
the 15th.
So be aware, maybe talk to your parents
or grandparents who are getting older, maybe be
more engaged in certain things and, you know,
just be aware.
Good, good comments.
Good, good suggestions.
And thanks for bringing this to our attention.
If anyone needs help, whether it's with some
of these issues or any aspect of your
(21:39):
portfolio management or financial planning, don't hesitate to
reach out to us until next time, everybody
keeps driving for something more.
Thank you for listening to something more with
Chris Boyd.
Call us for help, whether it's for financial
planning or portfolio management, insurance concerns, or those
quality of life issues that make the money
matters matter.
(22:00):
Whatever's on your mind.
Visit us at somethingmorewithchrisboyd.com or call us
toll free at 866-771-8901.
Or send us your questions to amr-info
at wealthenhancement.com.
You're listening to something more with Chris Boyd
Financial Talk Show.
Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services and Jay Christopher Boyd
(22:22):
provide investment advice on an individual basis to
clients only.
Proper advice depends on a complete analysis of
all facts and circumstances.
The information given on this program is general
financial comments and cannot be relied upon as
pertaining to your specific situation.
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(22:44):
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